Welcome back to Looking Closer.

Got your hiking boots on?

We’re MOVING!

The new Looking Closer Journal is OPEN FOR BUSINESS.

lookingcloser.org

It’s still got fresh paint on it, and there are some unfinished rooms. Excuse the dust, watch out for the guys with masks and blowtorches, and if an area looks unfinished, that’s because it is. Not all of the reviews and articles have been transferred yet. And when it comes to organization, well… I’ll be working on that for years to come.

But you’re invited to a world so new that it’s unfinished.

Previously, I had about five blogs and sites going. Now, thanks to designer Dave Von Bieker, they’ve all been consolidated into one massive new site.

Please email me if you have questions, recommendations, or ideas.

And when you get there, please post your thanks to Dave, who did all of this as a brave and imaginative volunteer. Dave’s at www.bodycreative.com.

It’s the most joyous time of the year.

Yes, I’m talking about Oscar season. 

Okay, maybe “joyous” is too strong a word, but I do love this season, because critics start celebrating and championing their favorite films, albums, books, etc. And after a season of hate-filled campaign language, insults, put-downs, fabricated scandals, and humanity behaving badly to promote candidates they think are saints… I’m ready to hear from people about something they love, something that brings out the best in them.

And we might as well enjoy that now, because we all know how Oscar season ends. It ends with actual Oscars, which usually plunge cinephiles back into griping and depression and binge drinking (if the actual nominations didn’t achieve that already).

This year, I’ll be inviting readers to declare their love for some of the year’s most memorable and impressive work. Make your case: Do you love this film, and if so, why? This is a time to gush, to be effusive with praise, to send a message of gratitude to the artists.

This is not a time for haters. If you want to complain about what you dislike about the film, you can do so on your own somewhere else. 

So… let’s kick this off with one of the films I enjoyed most this year, and which I will continue to watch again and again for its magical moments, its ambitious storytelling, its digital animation of surpassing excellence, its personality, and the way it rewards viewers of all ages.

That would be…

Go ahead. Don’t be shy. Why do YOU love WALL-E? If you think it deserves to be rated among the year’s best, and acknowledged *beyond* the “Best Animated Feature” category by the Academy, tell us why.

(And yes, I’ll be moderating comments, so that this post serves its intended purpose.)

IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS, PLEASE FIND THIS POST OVER AT LOOKING CLOSER’S NEW HOME. I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

Potter fans, are you excited about the new movie?

Here’s the trailer.

Normally, I wouldn’t have been very enthusiastic, but in the recent wave of mediocre-to-bad fantasy pics, this suddenly looks like great fun.

IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS, PLEASE FIND THIS POST OVER AT LOOKING CLOSER’S NEW HOME. I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

My latest Good Letter has been published at Image.

Watch the orientation video at the new Criterion.com. 

Very exciting stuff.

Thanks to Trent Ernst for this cool link: An amusing, artful collection of photographs from the set of Iron Man, by Jeff Bridges.

First, the trailers…

HD here.

The Browser: News & links to raise your eyebrows & furrow your brow. New headlines may be added as the day goes on. Stay tuned.

• Laura Bramon Good delivers Part 2 of her series “Elliot Spitzer Makes a Porno” … at Image’s blog, Good Letters. (If you missed Part 1, it’s here.)
• Greg Wright on “Anatomy of a Christian Approach to Movies” (Hey, thanks, Greg! I’m flattered!)

Well, I’ve run out of time to deliver the review of Twilight I’d hoped to write this weekend. Too busy working on the third book of The Auralia Thread, and we had our Thanksgiving dinner a week early, thanks to a visit from my parents.

But that’s okay, because I’ve got something much better for you than my disgruntled perspective on the film. The best thing I’ve read on the appeal of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight is Laura Miller’s article in Salon. It is a brilliant interpretation and diagnosis. And very well written.

Read all two pages of it here. It makes a lot of sense. And it’s kind of scary.

Scarier than the movie, anyway.

Perhaps the best thing about the release of the movie Twilight is that the Internet is already abundant with Twilight-related comedy.

One of the most amusing exhibits so far: A slideshow of 28 Reasons That Twilight the Movie is Better Than the Book.

Perhaps the best thing about the release of the movie Twilight is that the Internet is already abundant with Twilight-related comedy.

One of the most amusing exhibits so far: A slideshow of 28 Reasons That Twilight the Movie is Better Than the Book.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Wells writes:

I think it’s fair to call Twilight the most effective covert-conservative-values movie to be released since Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days, which made me feel an allegiance with the right-to-lifers. Because it makes sexual abstinence seem like a fairly hot, pure-of-spirit state of being. And I say this as something of a lifelong libertine.

If you buy this interpretation (or even if you don’t), Twilight can be seen as selling the exact opposite abstinence mentality as the one portrayed (and made stupid fun of) in 40 Days and 40 Nights, the ‘02 Josh Hartnett sex comedy.

Is Twilight a sexual right-wing movie in sheep’s clothing?

First, the previews…

HD here.

The Browser: News & links to raise your eyebrows & furrow your brow. New headlines may be added as the day goes on. Stay tuned.

In one of my favorite scenes from Saved!, Pastor Skip, the principal of the Christian high school in the film, talks about Christian music, and how its derivative, plagiaristic qualities only make it more effective for spreading the gospel:

One of the board members says, “Hey, I can’t tell the difference between Christian rock and secular rock anymore.” And I said, “Dude, exactly.” You get their attention, and then you hit them with the message, and boom! … You’ve saved another soul.

It’s a cliche to talk about how contemporary Christian music is often just “Christian-ese” tacked onto a cheap copy of whatever is popular in mainstream music. It happens all the time. I know of one Christian band that is typically described as “The Christian Radiohead.” God forbid that artists develop an original, authentic sound and style. Why waste time with that when we can steal an idea that’s already proven popular and just stamp a cross on it?

Why am I bringing this up? Well, someone over at artsandfaith.com just brought my attention to the fact that the trend goes beyond Christian music, and into Christian music marketing. No surprise there, but this particular case is particularly awful.

Here’s my vote for the most embarrassing Christian-music album cover:

It’s Third Day’s album, Revelation.

What were they thinking? Here’s a Radiohead album cover that was in front of everybody FIVE YEARS AGO.

Somewhere, Pastor Skip is very pleased. Because who cares about integrity and ethics and authenticity, so long as people get saved?

MORE:

• Joan Allen is going to play Georgia O’Keeffe!
• Okay, ray guns are cool in sci-fi films. But in the real world? Yikes.